Want to consume more fibre, feel less stressed, and engage in a little more exercise? All of the advantages were discovered by a randomised study that was printed in the January 2023 issue of The Lancet Planetary Health. About 300 participants (average age 41) in the trial wore activity trackers and occasionally completed questions about their eating habits and general health. Each of them had abandoned their gardens at least two years prior. Half of the participants received community garden plots, seeds, and a beginning gardening course to work on over the course of a year. For a year, the other volunteers were instructed not to engage in any gardening. Gardeners reported better decreases in stress and anxiety compared to non-gardeners, consumed around two more grammes of fibre daily (a 7% increase in fibre intake), and engaged in about six more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity each day (about 40 minutes per week). Better health is correlated with all of those changes, including lowered cancer and other chronic disease risks.
